The fandom of Blue Jeans online reading and literary socialization

Abstract

Both fans’ and writers’ social network participation configures an ecology of digital literary practices which alter how literary pieces are received and how readers and writers can potentially connect and interact. We explore the use of online affinity literary spaces through the literary universe of Spanish writer Blue Jeans. We proposed a case study. We analyzed 3,997 comments from digital spaces in the fandom (managed by the author or by the fans), and a semi-structured interview with Blue Jeans. Results indicate that (1) there fans socialize their affinity to literary reading differently according to the various spaces and who manages them (author, fans), (2) there are spaces more prone to literary socialization, and (3) keeping an active network for literary and reading socialization is a prominent part of the repertoire of the writer’s professionalization. Thanks to the horizontal interaction (writer/fans, fans/fans), Blue Jeans’ followers extract intercultural learnings revealing the potential of connecting vernacular contexts and formal education to educate generations of critical readers, without this involving the extraction of fandoms from their contexts. Finally, we propose some lines for future action in language and literary education such as tapping into the potential of social semiosis or the multiliteracies proposal.